Dr Ghulam Hussan
On the occasion of World Sleep day; Dr Ghulam Hassan, Consultant Internist, Pulmonologist, Allergist and Sleep Specialist, Kashmir Institute of Allergy and Sleep Science shares how food can affect your sleep health
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Staring in the dark at the numbers glaring back at on alarm clock. It is 3 a.m., and the makings of another night of interrupted sleep and frustration are apparent. As you contemplate what is wrong with you, think about this: It may be what you do during the day that’s giving you insomnia at night.
Today is World Sleep Day
Sleep is one of the most important pillars of healthy life. All creatures need it to function. Without it, we break down mentally and physically. Lack of sleep can cause moodiness, lack of concentration, and sluggishness. Regardless, Indian with their jam-packed schedules often try to delay sleep as much as possible and may unknowingly do other things that could hinder sleep when they actually do want it. In fact, diet and other lifestyle habits could be secretly sabotaging efforts to get a few much-needed good night sleep.
One of the factor which many fail to notice is that, food allergy or sensitivities play a big role in sleep patterns.They are also more likely to go unnoticed as opposed to a food allergy that tends to cause an immediate reaction like itching, tongue swelling, or hives.Symptoms of food sensitivities may not become evident for hours, if not days. You may feel a bit of a fatigue, perhaps a bloated, or slightly more stressed than usual. You don’t pay much attention to it and go on with your daily routine. In the meantime, the food sensitivity you are not even aware of is messing up your sleep.
How food allergy might affect your sleep –
Consuming food that you are allergic to can result in intestinal inflammation if you are under chronic stress. The reason for that is that stress raises cortisol levels and cortisol is responsible for brush border atrophy i.e. the intestinal lining is covered with tiny fingers (the villi) and tiny hairs (microvilli) which are filtering all the particles and molecules floating through intestine. Thus, when the food reached to these loose microvilli, the filtering system gets compromised, resulting in longer time for absorption and passing through the immune system. Moreover, when immune system recognises it as foreign substance, it tags it dangerous and tries to kick it out of system.
Now the molecule that has gone through still bears information of the basic food you have always been eating without an issue. But now it has been tagged as dangerous. So next time you are eating this food your body will raise an inflammation to get rid of it as it considers it to be an enemy. Causing allergies, and immune systemworking overtime and body becoming imbalanced and showing all sorts of issues, from autoimmune disease to hormone imbalances.
Since bodies are programed to do as much internal healing as possible, adrenal glands step in and releases hormones to manage the inflammation. One of those hormones is cortisol which is an energy and emergency hormone,usually produced during stress situations which directly impacts the sleep pattern. Also, histamine is a neurotransmitter, which induces sleep and usually released when there is an allergic susceptibility. Hence, when allergic patient consumes the food to which he/ she is allergic, lot of histamine is released in tuberomamillary nucleolus of brain leading to state of wakefulness.
Enzyme deficiency also adversely affects sleep. Having a lactose sensitivity means missing a lactase enzyme, which is responsible for lactose digestion. When body fails to produce a sufficient amount of digestive enzymes it results in feeling bloated or gasy – side effects that can easily impact sleep.
Diagnosis –
The gold standard to evaluate food allergy related sleep disorder needs a combined approach by allergist and sleep specialist. Evaluation would be separately done for food allergy and sleep.
Sleep evaluation is based on getting sleep pattern history of the patients such as insomnia, duration, sleep schedule, falling asleep times etc. Sleep specialist also prescribes polysomnography for suspicious sleep related breathing disorder, called as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).
Prevention and Treatment –
Once the connection of food allergy and insomnia is established, the basic principal of food allergy treatment is to avoid the food leading to allergic reaction. Prompt diagnosis is necessary, as sleep normalizes following removal of the enticing food allergens. Management of chronic insomnia in adults includes adaptation of sleep hygiene measures, cognitive behavioural therapy in addition of a proper treatment of other sleep disorders.
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